Indian Railway to restart train operations from May 12 to 15 locations

New Delhi:Amid nationwide lockdown across the country due to coronavirus pandemic, the Indian Railways on Sunday announced to restart passenger train operations from May 12 to 15 locations.

Initially, 15 pairs of trains (30 return journeys) will be operated. The trains will be run as special trains from New Delhi Station connecting Dibrugarh, Agartala, Howrah, Patna, Bilaspur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Secunderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Madgaon, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad and Jammu Tawi. 

"Indian Railways shall start more special services on new routes, based on the available coaches after reserving 20,000 coaches for COVID-19 care centres and adequate number of coaches being reserved to enable operation of up to 300 trains everyday as "Shramik Special" for stranded migrants," an official statement said. 

Booking for reservation in these trains will start at 4 pm on May 11 and will be available only on the IRCTC website (https://www.irctc.co.in/).Ticket booking counters at the railway stations shall remain closed and no counter tickets (including platform tickets) shall be issued.

Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets will be allowed to enter the railway stations. 

It will be mandatory for the passengers to wear face cover and undergo screening at departure and only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the train.

Further details including train schedule will be issued separately in due course, it added.

In the wake of nationwide lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to stop the rail operations across the country on March 24.(UNI)